COVID AND ELECTION. All French voters, even those positive for Covid-19, should be able to go to the polls on April 10 and 24 to vote in the 2022 presidential election. The government must announce a health protocol to be observed in polling stations.
The rule is now well known: being positive for Covid-19 means strictly isolating yourself at home for at least five days. The health protocol does not provide for any exceptions, but the holding of the ballot for the first round of the 2022 presidential election in ten days should change the situation. The government has already indicated at the end of the Defense Council on Tuesday March 29 that everyone will be authorized to go to the polling stations on Sunday April 10 and 24, even people infected with coronavirus and subjected to solitary confinement. However, it is impossible to know how access to the ballot will be organized or what proof sick and contagious voters will benefit from to leave their homes. The announcement of a health protocol to be respected in the polling stations is scheduled for the end of the week and as tradition dictates, it is the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, who should together inform about the preventive actions to be taken on April 10 and 24.
It must be said that the resurgence of the epidemic is beginning to worry the French. As anticipated in mid-March by the models of the Institut Pasteur, the curve of new contaminations has been on the rise for several days and if the current trend is confirmed there are “theoretically” nearly 500,000 French people who, sick and isolated , would be disqualified from voting on Sunday April 10 if no exemption from isolation is put in place.
With 100,000 cases per day among adults, isolated for 5 days, that theoretically makes 500,000 people who must respect isolation around April 10…
Will a derogatory self-certificate of non-contagiousness be required at the polling station? pic.twitter.com/h3UtbMPpUn— Michael (@mimiryudo) March 29, 2022
In addition to infected people, voters in fragile health or anxious in this context of health crisis could choose not to go to the polling stations. On this point, the government wants to be reassuring and a member of the Defense Council indicated on March 29 on BFM TV : “There is no danger in going to vote. There is no increase in critical care admissions, it’s a rebound, not a wave.” So much a way to prevent panic from setting in and to guard against a high rate of abstention.
What is the health protocol planned in the polling stations?
All French voters should be able to slip a ballot into the ballot box on Sunday April 10 and 24 to vote in the 2022 presidential election, including voters sick with Covid-19. But in times of health crisis and epidemic rebound, entry into polling stations must be done according to a strict health protocol. The preventive measures to be respected have not yet been decided by the government but it will not be long: announcements are expected at the end of the week. We can already imagine that, despite the lifting of health restrictions since March 14, wearing a mask will once again become compulsory in polling stations, as will respect for social distancing. The main question concerns above all the methods which will allow coronavirus patients to interrupt the period of isolation while they go to vote. According to the first tracks, the health protocol could be differentiated between the public and the assessors. The second could be subject to more restrictions or at least have to take more precautions.